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What reasons do people have to smoke, and
why are they wrong.
You think smoking is the only way to feel
good?
A smoke addict, like any other drug addict, has become
addicted on a chemical substance. In the cigarette smoker's case, nicotine is
drug. Smokers have to maintain a minimum level of nicotine in their blood
otherwise they get withdrawal symptoms.
It is important for smokers
considering quitting to understand these concepts because once they truly
understand why they smoke they will be able to more fully appreciate how much
more simple their life will become as an ex-smoker.
Do you think all
ex-smokers feel bad all the time? Ask them!
Most of them are much more
independent people, and feel much better without smoking.
You think it's too late to stop?
Some
people think they are already sick and it has no use to continue stop smoking.
This is very wrong. If it was known people become sick from drinking milk, and
you feel sick, would you still drink milk? NO. After quitting smoking some
people think the withdraw symptoms are sign of a sickness. But in fact, in most
cases this is a normal part of the healing process from quitting smoking. It is
important to remember just how irrational your thoughts was when you were a
smoker. As a smoker you were constantly warned of the dangers through the
media, physicians, family, friends who quit, and most importantly, your own
body. But being the obedient addict you were, you disregarded these pestering
outside influences to obey your true master--your cigarette.
The control
cigarettes exert on you when you are in the grip of the addiction is complete.
It makes you say and do things that when observed by outside observers makes you
look weak, stupid or crazed. Once free of cigarettes you can recognize all
these symptoms of your past addiction. To avoid ever living such a miserable
existence the only thing to do is to stop smoking.
You can't quit?
Ofcourse you can quit.
Everybody can quit. Millions of people have quit. Just don't wait till it's too
late for you. Don't let the nicotine talk for you!
You don't know how to
deal with a situation?
A little time, patience and positive
thinking will help you overcome all difficult situations.
How many times did
you tell yourself that you could not deal with a situation without your
cigarettes? All you were saying was that you needed nicotine, a drug, to
overcome everyday life problems.
When you have stopped smoking cigarettes,
you will realize you can overcome such problems without smoking, and in most
cases more effectively than when you were a smoker. Once you quit you realize
just how much a source of stress dependence upon nicotine was to you. When you
have stopped smoking, and you are in a difficult situation, there is nothing
worse you can do than take a cigarette. One cigarette will not help you over
the problem. In reality, it will create a new problem, a disastrous situation
of a revived and reinforced addiction, with all the physical dangers and the
dirty means of delivery that come with it.
So, next time you have the desire
for a cigarette, sit back and take a few moments to reflect upon what you are
setting yourself up for. Do you need that drug? Do you want that addiction?
Do you think
smoking is your friend?
If this was true, it would be a friend who
has to be with you all the time. A friend that makes you not welcome in many
places, a friend that smells bad, a friend that totally controls you. When he
says jump, you jump. Sometimes in the middle of a blizzard or storm, he wants
you to come to the store and pick him up. A friend who asks you to give him
money all the time, but never gives you anything back. A friend who likes to
burn holes in everything, and sometimes even likes to burn your house down. A
friend that makes you sick and steals your energy and does not believe in
staying healthy. He is really repulsed by the thought of you living a long and
productive life. Not just by running out in the middle of the lousy weather to
pick him up at the store. .
But colds and flu are just his form of child's
play. He especially likes diseases that slowly cripple you - like emphysema.
He considers this disease great. Once he gets you to have this, you will give
up all your other friends, family, career goals, activities - everything. You
will just sit home and caress him, telling him what a great friend he is while
you desperately gasp for air and eventually if he has reached his goals, he will
find and other friend. Possible one of YOUR friends. He has a wonderful arsenal
of weapons behind him. In fact, he has been plotting your death since the day
you met him. He picked all the top killers in society and did everything in his
power to ensure you would get one of them. He overworked your heart and lungs.
He clogged up the arteries to your heart, brain, and every other part of your
body. In case you were too strong to succumb to this, he constantly exposed you
to cancer causing agents, and knew he would get you sooner or later.Well, this
is the story of your "friend," your cigarette. Cigarettes are the worst possible
enemies you ever had. Cigarettes are expensive, addictive, socially
unacceptable, and deadly.
Quitting by smoking less cigarettes each day is better
for me
Some smoker might think this approach is the best way. It
sounds easy, and should in theory minimize the withdraw symptoms. Wrong! Try to
find one person who successfully quit using this approach. Quitting by gradual
withdraw is much less effective, and makes it much more complicated and
difficult to really quit.
You just like
to smoke?
Of course you like to smoke for now, but you know you
like it much more NOT to smoke! As time goes by, your desire to smoke will turn
in to a hate for smoking.If you ask a smoker why he/she smokers, they usually
reply 'I just like it'. This is a very misleading statement, both to the
listener and to the smoker herself. What the smoker should say is 'I just
dislike not to smoke'. So the next time you think of how much you once seemed to
enjoy cigarettes, sit back and take a serious, objective look at why you have
such an idealization of this dangerous product. Consider all the consequences.
You will probably realize that you feel physically and mentally better now than
you ever did as a smoker.
You are a nicotine junky?
Yes you are,
at least for now. Nicotine is a very powerful addictive drug. But the good thing
is that everybody can quit and stop being a junkie. 1 cigarette or puff will
only reinforce the addiction!
You will
smoke a lot less?
Yeah right. Don't fool yourself.
Other people also
smoke around you?
Ex-smokers are often tempted when watching
others smoke. Spending time with a specific friend and watching them smoke may
be a trigger especially if it was the most time you had spend with the friend
since you quit smoking. The first time you have any new experiences, even if
smoking is not part of the ritual, the thought for a cigarette will seem like a
natural part of the ritual.
Another factor is when watching a person
smoke, the natural tendency is for the ex-smoker to start to fantasize about how
good a cigarette will be at that given moment. A more productive way to handle
the situation though is to really watch the person smoke one, and then wait a
few minutes as they light another and then another. Soon you will see that they
are smoking in a way that you don't want to and probably in a way that they
don’t want to either. But they have no choice. You do. I am attaching a
letter here that addresses this issue. It is a little harder to describe
because it is based on a demonstration I do at live seminars.
Most
smokers enjoy a very small percentage of the cigarettes they smoke. In fact,
they are really unaware of most of the cigarettes they smoke. Some are smoked
out of simple habit, but most are smoked in order to alleviate withdrawal
symptoms experienced by all smokers whose nicotine levels have fallen below
minimal requirements. The cigarette may taste horrible, but the smoker has to
smoke it. And because the majority of smokers are such addicts, they must smoke
many such cigarettes every single day in order to maintain a constant blood
nicotine level.
Don't fantasize about cigarettes. Always keep a
clear, objective perspective of what it would once again be like to be an
addicted smoker. There is no doubt at all that if you relapse to smoking you
will be under the control of a very powerful addiction. You will be spending
hundreds of dollars a year for thousands of cigarettes. You will smell like
cigarettes and be viewed as socially unacceptable in many circles. You will be
inhaling thousands of poisons with every puff. These poisons will rob you of
your endurance and your health. One day they may eventually rob you of your
life.
Consider all these consequences of smoking. Then, when you watch a
smoker you will feel pity for them, not envy. Consider the life he or she is
living compared to the simpler, happier, and healthier life you have had since
you broke free from your addiction.
You think you have given up a part of your life since
you quit smoking?
True. You have given up a very bad part of your
life! Smokers think cigarettes are tied into the lifestyle of a smoker, and
he/she will give up all activities associated with cigarettes. Considering
these activities include almost everything he does from the time he awakes to
the time he goes to sleep, life seems like it will not be worth living as an
ex-smoker. But all these assumptions are wrong. There is life after smoking,
and withdrawal does not last forever. Trying to convince the smoker of this,
though, is quite an uphill battle. These beliefs are deeply ingrained and are
conditioned from the false positive effects experienced from cigarettes. The
smoker often feels that he needs a cigarette in order to get out of bed in the
morning. Typically, when he awakes he feels a slight headache, tired,
irritable, depressed and disoriented. He is under the belief that all people
awake feeling this way. He is fortunate though, because he has a way to stop
these horrible feelings. He smokes a cigarette or two. Then he begins waking
up and feels human again. Once he is awake, he feels he needs cigarettes to
give him energy to make it through the day. When he is under stress and
nervous, the cigarettes calm him down. Giving up this wonder drug seems
ludicrous to him. But if he quits smoking he will be pleasantly surprised to
find out that he will feel better and be able to cope with life more efficiently
than when he was a smoker. When he wakes up in the morning, he will feel
tremendously better than when he awoke as a smoker. No longer will he drag out
of bed feeling horrible. Now he will wake up feeling well rested and
refreshed. In general, he will be calmer than when he smoked. Even when under
stress, he normally will not experience the panic reactions he used to feel
whenever his nicotine level fell below acceptable levels. The belief that
cigarettes were needed for energy is one of the most deceptive of all. Almost
any ex-smoker will attest that he has more strength, endurance, and energy than
he ever did as a smoker. And the fear of prolonged withdrawal also had no
merit, for withdrawal symptoms would peak within three days, and totally subside
within two weeks.
If any smoker just gives himself the chance to really
feel how nice not smoking is, he will no longer have the irrational fears which
keeps him maintaining his deadly addiction. He will find life will become
simpler, happier, cleaner, and most importantly healthier, than when he was a
smoker. His only fear will now be in relapsing to smoking and all he has to do
to prevent this is never to smoke again!
You will switch to safer
cigarettes?
Smokers are always looking for ways to reduce the
health risks of smoking. Many smokers think that 'light' cigarettes are safer
than regular cigarettes, and that by smoking 'light' cigarettes they will inhale
fewer cancer-causing chemicals, or less nicotine. Tests have shown how wrong
this belief can be. The reports filed by the tobacco companies show that light
cigarettes are likely to deliver as many (or more) poisons and toxins to smokers
as regular cigarettes. Tobacco companies have deliberately made and marketed low
tar cigarettes knowing that they would fool smokers into a false sense of
security. Smokers who smoke ‘light’ smoke more cigarettes to get the same
feeling they get from 'normal' cigarettes. They also inhale deeper or are
holding the smoke down longer.
There is only one way to totally reduce the
deadly effects of smoking, and you know what way this is.
You want to destroy
yourself?
While smoking is a quick way to destroy yourself, there
are much faster ways to destroy yourself.
Many Smokers believe they continue
to smoke because of their self-destructive attitude. They actually want to get
sick. Some say they are afraid of reaching old age. Others arrogantly vow to
continue smoking until it kills them. Most make these statements to hide their
fears of not being able to give up cigarette smoking. If smokers who say this
actually become sick , they be shocked that they actually said this. Don't be
one of them.
You need a cigarette to handle your
stress?
Stress is considered a cause for smoking by many people.
Actually, smoking is a cause of stress. Recent correspondence dealt with
reasons people give for going back to smoking: social situations, parties,
alcohol consumption and stress. This month I wish to amplify on stress. In
everyday life inherent problems exist. Work, family, friends, and money can all
contribute to daily distress. Ex-smokers often think that if they just take a
cigarette during a stressful episode the situation will be solved. For example,
consider a person who finds he has a flat tire in a parking lot during a
freezing rain. When encountering this kind of misfortune, the ex-smoker's first
reaction often is, "I need a cigarette." What will actually solve this problem
is changing the tire, and driving off in a warm car. What would a cigarette do
to help this situation? It only makes the person see the flat tire longer and
freeze more. This adds up to greater frustration. The first puff will probably
reinforce the addiction to cigarettes which is a much greater crisis than the
flat tire ever was. In fact, taking the first puff almost always results in a
bigger problem than the crisis that "caused" them to take the puff. Even in a
real catastrophe, such as a death in the family, injuries, illnesses, flooding
resulting in major property loss, bankruptcy and so on, a cigarette will not
solve the problem. It will just add another major problem to the originally bad
situation.
Remember, smoking cannot solve problems of daily living. No
matter what the problem, there is a more effective way of solving it than
smoking. In fact, a smoker's health risks are a real problem that can only be
solved if they never smoke again. You WILL find another way to deal with
stress.
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